Cohort 1 (2016-2017)

Terrell Bolden

Armando Cordero

FromB2C is a startup focused on solving the problem of the last mile commuter. A last mile commuter is very similar to the typical commuter, but there is one key difference. Both use either a car or train as their primary mode of transportation, but only last mile commuters walk a mile or more after exiting that primary mode of transportation. These vehicles get you from A to B, but we ensure you get from B to C quicker and easier than ever before. We believe this product has the potential to impact millions, even billions of lives everywhere. Our electronic scooter provides people with the opportunity to save more time, more money, and help save the environment.

Kimberly Alvarez

College campus student support services are meant to assist students achieve academic success. However, the needs of undergraduate parents are not being adequately met with regards to academic support. Due to inefficient programming within student support resources, I have chosen to focus my qualitative study on areas to improve our campus community at California State Polytechnic University of Pomona. The goal of my research is to advocate for a revolutionary innovative change for academic support services to become aware of and inclusive of undergraduate parents part of our college community. The emphasis of my study is to promote the support of undergraduate mothers of color because of the marginalized lived experiences of their intersectionality both in greater society and at a college campus setting such as Cal Poly Pomona.

Vivianne Mitri

The topic of interest is Alzheimer's Disease. Specifically, it deals with the recent discovery that many individuals develop the toxic features (amyloid plaques) that would be expected to make individuals susceptible to the serious cognitive decline that Alzheimer's is so well known for. However, they are not at all affected by it. How do some, these Non-demented Alzheimer's individuals, manage to evade the renowned "toxic" features and the memory loss associated with this disease? We hope that this research project will invite more biology students to be interested in both neuroscience, as well as the Alzheimer's community. There are many biology students who are looking for both research and volunteer opportunities and I believe that launching this research project with already having the service learning course available, will provide even more room and interest in both.

Jonathan Evans

Jose Lopez

Alden Gabriel Reyes Caterio

In this project, we will be building a set of devices that communicate with a database that stores information on what objects are available and who is currently using them. An application will be developed using the Android platform so that individuals will be able to access the information stored on the database. The project includes both hardware and software development. Our project will impact the campus community in a very positive way. When people go to the BRIC, they often have a hard time finding a locker because there is no way of knowing if there are any lockers available or which ones are available. Generally, if people discover that the lockers in the designated locker rooms are all occupied, they automatically give up and assume that there are no lockers available. If we implement our locker idea, people that go to the BRIC will know ahead of time whether or not there are lockers available. This idea can potentially solve a big problem that BRIC users encounter on a daily basis and can streamline the locker-finding process for anyone that may want to use a locker. In the grand scheme of things, this implementation will appeal to most of its users since it will be very user-friendly, and this will lead to a possible increase in general satisfaction of campus facilities and an increase in the overall happiness of the campus' students, faculty, and guests.

Hector Alarcon

Discovery of selective, more efficient catalysts using sustainable metals could help develop biomass as a source of chemicals. Secondly, there are few examples of vanadium complexes with NHC ligands so the new vanadium complexes synthesized in this project are of significant interest for the field of inorganic chemistry. This project could help further explore the use of NHC ligands coordinated to earth abundant transition metals in DODH conversions. Current systems use precious metals and have limited use in the variety of biomass derived carbohydrates that can be successfully converted. Other limitations of current systems include the high energy input which makes biomass conversion an inefficient and expensive process. DODH chemistry is limited, so this project could provide a more cost effective method of biomass conversion than current systems. Finally, our group consistently presents our research at conferences and makes an effort be an active and visible research program. Our group often presents in multidisciplinary conferences in order to reach out to the community and make our research more accessible to audiences outside of science.

Casey Sidwell

The project will have multiple impacts for my discipline, campus, and the Pomona community. In my discipline of Liberal Studies, many of my peers strive to be teachers. The project will open up opportunities for future LS 401S students to expand their service learning operations, which might inspire pedagogies that embrace "learn by doing." Future LS 401S students who volunteer in the garden, for example, can have concrete experiences learning and teaching in these gardens, which they can then adapt to their own classrooms and schools one day. In addition, it would add to the discipline of environmental education and perhaps motivate future teachers to incorporate more ecological learning that extends to nonhuman others. Above all, the garden beds expand sustainable community efforts to grow food and helps to change paradigms of human/nature relationships, providing a permanent infrastructure to the community garden to expand their educational programming and offerings to the local community.

Jomel Fragante

Nektary Telep

Microorganisms are the most diverse and abundant form of life on Earth. Characterization of these spacecraft microorganisms will lead to better understanding of their survival mechanisms under extreme environments such as the Space and the early life on Earth. Therefore, our results will contribute to the knowledge in terrestrial microbiology and astrobiology. This project is unique in that the bacterial isolates are all associated with the current or past spacecraft missions. Our findings will not only contribute to the scientific knowledge, but also lead to improvement of NASA's planetary protection activities during future space missions. In this project, our community partner, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, will work closely with us. Their expertise and skills will not only benefit student interns at JPL, but also come to our campus using real world projects. Finally, this scholarship will provide the opportunity and funding for a pilot run of a STEM undergraduate research training program to be established at CPP as well as other CSU campuses. Undergraduate research is well recognized as one of the most effective high impact learning activities. A proposal entitled "Multi-Institutional Collaboration for Research Opportunities (MICRO) project" is prepared to be submitted to NSF under the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE:HER) mechanism. Our results will provide the preliminary data to improve and support the submission of this NSF proposal.

Sergio Maldonado

For decades, the field of psychology has focused on the deficit model meaning that the main concern has been on "what's wrong" with the individual rather than focusing on "what's right". The constant focus on deficits has inhibited researchers in identifying the strengths that can help individuals to improve their quality of life and enabling them to thrive. As of recent years, the field of positive psychology has flourished with studies contributing to understanding the mechanisms that promote well-being. This project will not only add to the recent literature that has emerged in positive psychology, but it will also serve as a call to professionals in the field to start investigating character strengths in marginalize populations such as former Latino gang members.

Jesus Mancera

David Pena

Adi Halim

Jennifer Nguyen

Oscar Sanchez

Elsie Cervantes

Juan Garcia

Pachet Bryant

Lana Rayan

Plastic Crafted incorporates sustainability into fashionable eyewear by giving ocean plastic a new purpose. Our mission is to work locally and globally to improve the environmental well being of our community. We have a vision to promote a sustainable future in the community. We want to stop plastic bags and bottles from making it to the ocean by taking that plastic and repurposing it into eyewear. While many people wear glasses, how many can truthfully say they're made with 100% recycled plastic? Not many. That is why we hope to incorporate the significance of preserving the environment to our fashionable streetwear products.

Patricia Galvan

Leanna Little Dog

The US dairy industry makes approximately $125 billion per year. Milk and milk products have a tremendous impact on the US diet in terms of achieving recommended daily intakes of nutrients. However, this industry spends ~$1.8 billion annually in economic and veterinary costs as a result of mastitis. We foresee PEMFT having a tremendous positive impact on dairy farmer. We hope that this innovative technology reduces the amount costs that are implemented in order to discard milk and drug and veterinary costs. We also know that having a entire herd acquire this infection leads to a decrease in milk yield, culling and replacing, and deaths. The cost of an individual case of mastitis is $200.